Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska Tribes deliver 30,000 letters opposing Canadian mining near salmon-bearing rivers

November 18, 2025 — Conservation groups delivered nearly 30,000 letters to Canadian lawmakers opposing mining developments in British Columbia, which U.S.-based Tribes say could harm Alaskan salmon fisheries.

“The provincial government is blatantly ignoring the rights of Indigenous peoples to protect their traditional territory from toxic mining pollution,” Earthjustice Supervising Senior Attorney Ramin Pejan said in a release. “Thousands of people have raised their voice in opposition, and the government should take notice.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Inside one of Alaska’s national parks, a fight looms over a possible gold mine

November 18, 2025 — High in a mountain valley on the far west side of this tidal inlet sits an unusual plot of land.

It’s a private parcel, with a gravel airstrip and four or five buildings that make up a small worker camp. But there are no towns in sight. Known as the Johnson Tract, the property is fully surrounded by the vast Lake Clark National Park—millions of wild acres marked by the broad white peaks of a volcano, sprawling glaciers and a muddy ocean coastline patrolled by brown bears.

Beneath the Johnson Tract lies a potential fortune. For decades, geologists have eyed gold, copper and zinc deposits thought to be worth billions of dollars. But they’ve never been tapped.

Now, amid surging gold prices and rising demand for metals like copper, the prospect is generating new excitement—and concern.

A prominent Alaska mining company is leasing the Johnson Tract from its Indigenous owners, and the property, some 125 miles southwest of Anchorage, has emerged as one of the most promising mining prospects in Southcentral Alaska.

But conservationists, commercial salmon fishermen and local lodge owners fear a mine, encircled by the federal protected area, could disrupt harvests and harm wildlife, including an endangered population of beluga whales.

Read the full article at News From The States

ALASKA: In waters off Alaska, fishermen struggle to keep orcas from their catch

November 17, 2025 — The orca pod that forages in the waters just north of this Aleutian island are quick to swarm any halibut boat with a skipper foolish enough to drop lines in their domain.

As the lines are pulled up, and fresh-caught fish near the surface, the whales, in a well-honed feeding ritual, pick them off the hooks.

Skipper Robert Hanson’s lines have been hit by lots of the killer whales that dwell in the Bering Sea. He has found the Unalaska pod to be the most savvy, skilled and aggressive — leaving just traces of halibut, the largest of which could have netted Hanson hundreds of dollars apiece.

“Most of the time, you get nothing. Sometimes a lip, or a half a fish, if they get full,” Hanson said. “They are particularly good at what they do.”

For the past 20 years, Hanson has sought to avoid feeding these whales and prospected for halibut elsewhere. But during a May fishing trip, Hanson dared to set his lines near these whales as part of an eight-day sea trial to test a new defense, an aluminum “shuttle” resembling a small submarine.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Alaska troopers seize Kodiak trawl group’s electronics in bycatch probe

November 17, 2025 — Julie Bonney is a longtime, Kodiak Island-based representative of some of Alaska’s trawlers — a type of fishing boat that’s drawn increasing criticism over the years for accidental “bycatch” of salmon, halibut and other species.

Last week, Bonney was returning from a trip off the island when Alaska State Troopers seized her mobile phone and work laptop. The day before, investigators searched the offices of Bonney’s member-based business, the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, and seized all of its electronics.

Bonney was not arrested and no charges have been filed. But troopers, over the weekend, confirmed an active investigation into allegations that “multiple seafood processors” had been illegally profiting from salmon and halibut bycatch — further fueling scrutiny of an industry that’s already under attack.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Alaska officials forecast another strong Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run in 2026

November 14, 2025 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has forecast another strong run of sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay next year, but the estimated number of returning salmon is still well below average for the last decade.

“A total of 45.32 million sockeye salmon (with a range of 31.12 million to 59.52 million) are expected to return to Bristol Bay in 2026. This is 26 percent smaller than the most recent 10-year average of 61 million fish and 21 percent greater than the long-term average of 37.4 million fish (1963–2025),” ADF&G announced.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Record number of invasive green crab found on Annette Island, potential impacts to subsistence fishing

November 13, 2025 — It was the first sunny morning in days, and two scientists donned in Xtratuf boots carefully strolled along a rocky, grassy shoreline. They were at Settlers Cove on the north end of the Tongass Highway. The duo are no strangers to flipping rocks and looking into puddles for carapaces, or crab shells.

Before long, they located the exoskeleton of a Dungeness crab, which is indigenous to Southeast and much of the West Coast. The find is somewhat of a relief to the group, who didn’t spot any invasive European green crabs that day.

But that isn’t always the case. Shells and live crabs were spotted to the north in Ketchikan this summer, and they’ve since been found on eight other beaches along the road system.

Read the full article at KRBD

NOAA cuts back on seismic data used for West Coast tsunami alerts

November 12, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ended a contract with the Alaska Earthquake Center that helped maintain some seismic stations and transmit data in real time.

Alaska state seismologist and director of the center, Michael West, warned that the termination of this contract, which is around two decades old, will lead to less timely and accurate tsunami warnings that could affect Alaska, Hawaii and the West Coast.

It’s unclear why NOAA chose to terminate the contract, worth around $300,000 annually. David Snider, a tsunami warning coordinator with NOAA’s National Tsunami Warning Center, declined to comment, deferring to NOAA public affairs, which did not respond to request for comment.

Every time an earthquake happens, NOAA’s Tsunami Warning Centers determine whether to issue a tsunami alert within five minutes. Depending on where the earthquake originated, coastal communities could have anywhere from 20 minutes to six hours to evacuate or prepare for a tsunami.

Read the full article at The Columbian

ALASKA: Prince William Sound commercial season valued below average at $90M

November 12, 2025 —  State fisheries officials are estimating the Prince William Sound commercial salmon harvests to be valued at $90.99 million this year, still 3% less than the 10-year average.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) season summary released on Oct. 31 said the near average value can largely be attributed to Eastern District hatchery pink salmon, Copper River District sockeye salmon, and Port Chalmers Subdistrict remote release hatchery chum salmon commercial fisheries – plus hatchery cost recovery chum and pink salmon fisheries.

A total of 410 drift gillnet, 27 set gillnet, and 216 purse seine commercial permit holders – including 177 primary and 39 secondary – fished in at least one fishing period, according to ADF&G.

The following was released by the Cordova Times

ALASKA: Alaska’s commercial fishing workforce continues to shrink

November 10, 2025 — A report from Alaska’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development shows the state’s commercial fishing workforce is continuing to shrink, with the number of fishers working in the sector reaching a record low in 2024.

The state report found that the commercial fishing sector lost 443 jobs in 2024, a 7.6 percent drop from 2023. On average, there were 5,393 people employed in harvesting fish in Alaska per month in 2024, down from a high of 8,501 in 2015.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska commercial fishing job numbers sink to record low, state report says

November 6, 2025 — The number of commercial fishing jobs in Alaska plunged to a new low last year as the industry struggles with disrupted fisheries, low prices, climate change and foreign competition that could get a boost from President Donald’s Trump’s trade war, a state report has found.

“Alaska lost seafood harvesting jobs for a fifth straight year in 2024, bringing the industry to its lowest job count since data collection began in 2001,” according to the November report in Alaska Economic Trends.

The drop in employment extends statewide and across multiple fisheries including salmon, herring, black cod and other species.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News